Senior Principal - Platform Architect LAN

Overview

Owns the technical design of GSK's local area network and campus switching platform, defining reference architectures, patterns and standards, and guiding engineering teams in applying them.

What you'll do

• Define reference architectures, patterns and standards for the platform, aligned to DPTF strategy and enterprise architecture.
• Design AI into the platform, producing reference patterns for AI-assisted delivery and for intelligent, self-healing operations.
• Architect for reliability and resilience by design, so that platform SLOs and error budgets are achievable rather than aspirational.
• Provide design assurance and technical guidance to engineering teams, reviewing designs against the standards before build rather than after.
• Ensure platform solutions are secure and compliant, including GxP requirements where the platform supports regulated activity.
• Evaluate and introduce new technologies, measuring the result against architecture OKRs rather than adopting on vendor claim.
• Set architecture standards that supplier and managed-service solutions must meet, and assure their designs to the same bar as internal work.
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture and Information Security on standards, roadmaps and exceptions.
• Increase pattern reuse across the platform, tracking where teams have adopted a pattern and where they have diverged and why.
• Reduce rework by intervening early in design, and evidence the reduction rather than asserting it.
• Advise the Product Owner and Platform Manager on the architectural consequence of roadmap choices, including technical debt being accepted.
• Hold the boundaries with the Platform Architecture Director on domain target architecture, the Solution Architect on cross-domain initiative designs, and the engineering teams on build.

What you'll need

• Degree in a technology or engineering discipline (e.g., Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems), or equivalent practical experience.
• Overall 15 years experience, typically 6-8 years in technology architecture or senior engineering, including at least three years producing reference architectures or standards others build to.
• Deep hands-on depth in the relevant platform domain, whether cloud, network or digital workplace.
• Experience running design assurance or architecture review, including declining designs that did not meet the standard.
• Track record of architecting for reliability and resilience, working to SLOs and error budgets.
• Experience designing secure and compliant solutions, ideally including GxP or another regulated context.
• Experience setting architecture standards that supplier or managed-service solutions had to meet.
• Awareness of AI reference patterns for assisted delivery and intelligent operations.
• Extensive experience designing enterprise local area network and campus switching services.
• Deep knowledge of routing, switching, quality of service, resilience, segmentation and network access control.
• Evidence of defining campus architectures that improved standardisation, security, availability or lifecycle efficiency.

Nice to have

• Architecture certifications such as TOGAF, or a recognised cloud or network architecture certification relevant to the platform.
• Expert level enterprise switching certification, such as CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure or JNCIE Enterprise Routing and Switching.
• Experience with Cisco Catalyst, Meraki, Juniper EX or Juniper Mist platforms.
• Experience with software defined campus, automation or operational technology networks.

Details

• Location: Bengaluru Luxor North Tower.